Yūdasuki chitose o kakete ashihiki no yamaai no iro wa kawarazari keri

English Translation

The sacred cord sash—
as it's hung, a thousand years
on the rugged hills
the color of mountain indigo
has not changed in the least.

Meaning

As a sacred sash is hung across the shoulders, so across a thousand years the color dyed with mountain indigo has never changed.

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitation Poems 712

Headnote: "A screen poem from the reign of Engi."
This poem offers felicitation through the attire of Shinto rites. Even across a thousand years, spanned as a sacred sash is hung, the color dyed with mountain indigo does not change. According to the headnote, it was written for a screen in the Engi reign.
No author's name is given; the poem follows the preceding one as a poem by Ki no Tsurayuki.
The scene has no season specified, and the place is within a screen painting of the Engi reign.
The direct occasion is a poem written for a screen prepared in the Engi reign.
The Engi reign was that of Emperor Daigo. Mountain indigo was a plant used to print-dye in blue the omigoromo, the robes worn by those serving in Shinto rites.

The first line, "yūdasuki," is a sash made of mulberry-bark fiber, worn across the shoulders during Shinto rites. It works as a pillow word leading to "kaku," to hang.
In the second line, "chitose o kakete," "kakete" means "spanning a thousand years." Taking up the sash of the first line, it also carries the sense of hanging a sash, joining the length of the celebration to the attire of the rite.
The third line, "ashihiki no," is a pillow word leading to "yama," mountain.
The fourth line, "yamaai no iro wa," means "the color printed with mountain indigo." The blue of the ritual robe is presented.
In the last line, "kawarazari keri," the exclamatory "keri" expresses the wonder of realizing that it has not changed. The poem contains two pillow words and entrusts a thousand years of felicitation to the unchanging color of the ritual robe. 715 in this book, with "the color that never changes," and 716, with "its color changes not," continue the conceit of seeing permanence in an unchanging color.

Author

Ki no Tsurayuki

Source

Shin Kokin Wakashu

Other